By Larry Foley
Favourite Tiger Roar won comfortably in the $85,000 Class 2 race over 1400m on Sunday, showing why he is a horse to follow in the upcoming feature races in Singapore.
Sent off as the $13 favourite and ridden relatively quiet by jockey Simon Kok Wei Hoong, Tiger Roar settled at the rear of the 10-horse field with trainer Shane Baertschiger’s pair of runners, Nepean (Matthew Kellady) and Red Ocean (Wong Chin Chuen) making the early run, while Sky Eye (Krisna Thangamani) took the box seat in third.
Turning for home, Kok had to muscle his way out for some clean air but looked every chance at the 300m when making his run outside of stablemate Prosperous Return’s (Jake Bayliss).
The pair looked to have the on-pace runners covered at the 200m and while Prosperous Return put up a mighty fight – and would have lost no admirers going forward – Tiger Roar had his measure in the last 100m to win going away by one-and-a-quarter lengths.
Sky Eye battled on gallantly to be only a neck away in third with Red Ocean a further length back in fourth.
The winning time was 1 min 21.63secs for the 1400m on the Short Course.
Kok – who had well-documented work permit issues that has kept him out of the saddle not long ago, was full of praise for the Wandjina five-year-old.
“I think this horse means a lot to me,” said Kok of the horse he rode to victory in the Group 3 Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint last year.
“Especially the colours, and it’s something to thank the owners (Falcon Racing No. 7 Stable) for, they always put me on nice horses.
“The problems (work permit issues) has made me more hungry.
“I kept telling myself the whole morning to ‘trust this horse’.
“Because of the ‘D’ Course and the pace, I probably should have been closer but because I trust the horse, he bounced out good, I kept him underneath and the horse finished very well for me.”
Winning trainer Michael Clements was full of praise for both Tiger Roar and his rider.
“He was ridden great today,” said the former Singapore champion trainer who heads to Seoul on Monday to oversee Celavi’s work before she runs in the Group 3 Korea Sprint (1200m) next Sunday.
“Simon knows the horse well. He was patient on him early and just let him wind up in the straight and found the line really well.
“There is an art to riding this horse and I think he was ridden well today.
“That’s how he has won his best races. Simon is fully aware of that and he was really effective on him.”
When asked by racing presenter Scott Bailey about where to now for both Tiger Roar and Prosperous Return, Clements could not have been clearer about their pathways.
“There’s a Class 1 (race over) 1600m coming up when we come back on the turf, so they’ll be heading to that race.
“Then, we’re looking at getting them through to the (Group 1) QEII (Queen Elizabeth Cup) and the (Group 1 Singapore) Gold Cup.”
With his seventh win and five placings from 15 starts, Tiger Roar has taken his earnings to over $360,000 for his Thai connections.
Clements and Kok trebles
Tiger Roar was the third leg of a training treble for Clements, who had earlier won with $17 shot Ejaz (see previous report) and Istataba ($12) in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1600m with apprentice jockey Ibrahim Mamat on board.
Kok had to wait for the last race to bring up his riding treble. The one-kilos claimer was booked on Tiger Roar and Straight N Arrow for Clements at declarations on Wednesday, but picked up three more rides on Sunday and won on two of them, King’s Speech ($36) in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 2000m and King Zoustar ($133) in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1200m, handing Kok his first hat-trick of wins since he was promoted to a senior rider on July 1.
Kok was not the only jockey to ride a treble thanks to pick-up rides. “CC” Wong took over from jockey Marc Lerner, who could not make the weight, and scored a boilover win on War Frontier ($129) in the $30,000 Class 5 race over 1100m on the Polytrack. Wong won earlier in the day on Cizen Lucky ($22) in the $30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1200m and Lim’s Craft ($17) in the $50,000 Class 4 race over 1400m.
In the training ranks, Donna Logan kicked two clear in the trainers’ premiership courtesy of another double with God’s Gift ($26) saluting in the $30,000 Class 5 Division 2 race over 1400m with apprentice jockey Jamil Sarwi and Rocky ($24) winning the $20,000 Maiden race over 1100m on the polytrack with Jake Bayliss up. Not to be outdone by a fellow Kiwi, trainer Stephen Gray also knocked in a double with King’s Speech and Wecando ($11), who won with Vlad Duric up in the $30,000 Class 5 Division 1 race over 1400m.
On a side note, a two-horse fall in the opening race – Absolvido (Danny Beasley) and Master Player (Hakim Kamaruddin) saw the latter unavailable to ride for the rest of the meeting, but fortunately, he was not injured and has returned home after a check-up at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
